France will fight to keep Paul Seixas on a French team

Cor Vos

Already the sport's hottest prospect, Paul Seixas sent the hype train into overdrive this past week by dominating the Itzulia Basque Country. Two months into just his second WorldTour season, the 19-year-old is generating headlines at a rate the marketing folks over at Decathlon and CMA CGM could only have dreamed of when they decided to pour money into this team.

Of course, any time this much talent – and this much money – are involved, there will be forces pulling in opposite directions trying to get ahold of that potential. Various reports over the past week have made it clear that the almighty dollar (or the Euro, in this case) is threatening the French connection between Seixas and his current team – but Decathlon-CMA CGM and even France itself seem ready to fight to keep Seixas in a French outfit.

Paul Seixas has us firmly under his spellAs the teenage sensation becomes the first French man to win a major stage race in almost 20 years – and all four classification jerseys – the excitement for his future reaches fever pitch.Escape CollectiveKit Nicholson

It's impossible to overstate how valuable Seixas is for Decathlon-CMA CGM. He is not just any rising star; he is a French rising star on a French team with two French title sponsors. And he is not merely a sprinter or Classics specialist but a rising stage-racing star who seems like a future contender in the sport's biggest race, which happens to be in France – and which a Frenchman has not won in 40 years.

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